Suspect in Long Beach Hostage Situation in Grave Condition

A gunman who led police on a car chase that began near the Harbor Gate community of Los Angeles and ended when he shot himself at a Long Beach home remains in grave condition at an area hospital, a police sergeant said Saturday.

The incident began about 9:30 a.m. Friday when an off-duty Los Angeles police officer spotted a VW Passat at 182nd and Vermont Avenue that had been involved in a crime earlier that morning, said Sgt. Bradley Hearn of the LAPD’s Harbor station.

The off-duty officer phoned in what he saw and officers eventually spotted the Passat in the area of 223rd Street and Vermont Avenue, where a pursuit began, Hearn said.

During the pursuit, one of the suspects got out the car and fired at the occupants in an orange Dodge Durango that had pulled over when the driver heard the patrol car’s sirens, Hearn said. The two occupants inside the orange Durango got out the vehicle. They were not injured.

Officers followed the SUV into Long Beach, where the driver crashed into a curb and ran into a house in the 3300 block of Daisy Avenue, the police sergeant said.

“It was a random house. There was no connection (to the suspect),” Hearn said.

The suspect, described as a man in his 20s, allegedly fought with a man inside the house and stabbed him in the face with a knife from the kitchen. The man and a younger son, who suffered an injury to his hands, were able to flee the house.

The suspect then held the remaining two sons in the house as hostages, eventually shooting them both, police said. One was treated and released from an area hospital and the other was listed in serious, but stable condition.

As police approached the residence, the suspect shot himself in the head, Hearn said. The suspect was initially reported Friday to have died from the shooting.

Hearn said a second suspect in the VW Passat was eventually pulled over later on Friday, adding that he had no “particulars” about that incident.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock